The Chronicles of a VBG (Voluptuous Brown Gurl)

This week, I finally got my itinerant wings back  and I'm in Vegas, baby!  This is my first time being out west.  In fact I never even considered traveling to  Las Vegas until I saw  The Hangover, truly one of funniest movies ever! My very first blog post as Voluptuous Brown Gurl focused on my new lifestyle choice to become vegan.  I know right? Shortly after I started blogging "the struggle" to eat meat or even define meat (fish is flesh therefore it is meat) set in and I all but abandoned it. Soon after, my blog evolved into what it is today - an offshoot of my journal, the written expression of  my joys, trials and frustrations. It has proven to be especially therapeutic with the losses that ensued over the 6 months following my first post. When I lost the job that I’d despised for most of 9 years I spent there, I knew right away it was a blessing, even if it came disguised as the challenge of securing steady income. I knew FINALLY that I ...

I don't remember a time when I wasn't a voluptuous gurl. I was a chubby kid who grew into a rubensque woman. But  I also  happen to be one book who should rarely be judged by the cover  within the last year I completed both a 10k and half marathon. With those accomplishments behind me, I was getting bored with walking and well running just isn't in my immediate future, if ever. So at the end of June I began taking Body Pump, a weight lifting/training class. Now this class and I have a history, I first took it years ago when the Wunderkind was barely out of diapers. I credit this class for getting me through my separation and divorce with my sanity intact not to mention helping me tone and trim almost 40 pounds to boot. After I left the fitness club that initially offered it, I looked for the class again throughout most of the last decade to no avail until recently. I was intent on taking some aqua aerobics classes ( another favorite if the class is not senior so...

Which part of the body works hardest and gets the least love??   FEET , of course They carry us everywhere yet we mistreat and hide them in smelly, sometimes ill formed shoes.  Too often the only rest these weary ones get is during sleep. As summer comes to a close, here are VBG's ideas for pampering, gear and maintenance for your piggies. Of all the body treatments, I love none more than pedicures .  I didn't come to this realization soon enough. It just happens that a decade ago, I started a new job and I sat next to this really sweet and sorta wild gurl, Be. For reasons unknown, she found it incredulous that I'd never had a pedicure and was relentless in her mission to make sure my untouched feet in the "spa sense" did not remain so for long.  Just to get her off my back, I acquiesced and have never looked back. For a bit we were getting monthly pedis but the arrival of little people (her), crunched schedules (us), and a move across sta...

Other Voluptuous Brown Gurls!! photo courtesy of The Washington Post Definitely not in the way that men (or some women) love brown gurls but in the way that just being around a group of engaging, unpretentious, sweet women warms your soul - like when you decide to go to church on Sunday (and don't normally go) but that preacher nails the message you need to weather this week's storm. This weekend I had the pleasure of being invited to a barbeque of a good friend. I've been there before, the hostess is an awesome cook and a true treasure, and met most of  those ladies before but this year there was a genuine sense of camaradie that I just don't recall feeling  before. Perhaps the pouring rain that forced us all into close quarters also aided in the shedding any extra layers of aloofness or perhaps...it was just me.  Whatever the cause I am ecstatic to reap the effect.  They were we - some thin, some thick, natural haired and permed, omnivorous and vegan, some s...

As evidence of my lifelong wanderlust, at the end of the last and the beginning of this millenium, I desperately wanted (and tried unsuccessfully) to find employment in Scandinavia.  I even attempted to learn to speak Norwegian - the language kit sits atop the desk in my home office even now to remind me that I still gotta go. During that time I first heard of Marcus Samuelsson - then head Chef of Aquavit , NYC's premier Scandinavian restaurant. What truly interested me was his background - born and orphaned in Ethiopia, adopted and raised in Sweden, introduced to the joys of cooking by his Swedish mormor (grandmother), created a big buzz in the US and world cooking scene. I've continued to be impressed with his ascent if for no other reason than he was the only person of color getting that kind of recognition . I couldn't help but wish him well. Over the last few years Marcus has become far more popular to the world at large with his numerous appearances on cooking seg...

  This post is gonna be short and sweet because well, I am in the throws of my hot and heavy Quadrennial love affair …with the Olympics.  I gotta get back to them because that 4 year absence does indeed make my heart grow fonder.  For the last 9 days I have immersed myself during my precious little free time in little else but the beauty and spectacle that is the Olympic games. And man, oh man, does it feel good to take a break from all the news, insanity, political tomfoolery that we are inundated with 24/7. I love both the winter and summer games and my television has offered me (and hopefully you also) a warm and cozy ring side seat to the joys and heartbreaks of the 2012 games.  I spent the first day of televised competition glued to archery and fencing. I loved every minute of it.  I love how the Italian team consisted mostly of 3 slightly pudgy dudes who kicked butt with their bows.  It was refreshing to see that a physique r...

Summer is a great time to partake of the abundance of fresh produce. Whether from the farmer's market or a pick your own farm, you can't go wrong. In both cases it is freshly picked not languishing in some big box grocery refrigerator for a week. Consuming less animal protein is great for you and even better for the planet. I started this blog because I was flirting, successfully at the time, with a vegetarian/vegan diet.  Well my on again, off again romance is back on... again and here's what I'm cookin' this month. A couple of my first jobs were as short order cooks in "sub shop" type restaurants.  Both times the owners were Greek so in addition to your usual pizzas and subs they also sold Greek specialities like souvlaki, spanakopita, tzatsiki sauce and gyros.  I learned to make them all even though the person who taught me the most, Maria, didn't speak a word of English. While her verbal direction was sorely lacking, I did pay attention...